Ontario Moving to District Model in 2017

[GreyingJay]

It's official: Ontario is moving to the District Model for 2017!

https://www.facebook.com/FIRSTRoboti...7215547010163/

Our team received an email today with the announcement. We are excited... I think!

FIRST Robotics Competition Family in Ontario,

The FIRST Robotics Canada Board of Directors would like to formally announce that the program in Ontario will be moving to the District Model for the 2017 competition season. This decision culminates almost three years of preparatory work. We consulted with the FIRST Robotics Competition community in Ontario as part of this process, and the feedback we have received from you has been thoughtful and constructive, helping shape our decision. At this time, most of the community is ready to welcome and embrace the District concept, and we hope that eventually, all of you will feel the same way. The biggest result of this change will be that Ontario teams will play a minimum of two District events vs. just one Regional event. The result of this will mean that, on average, teams will play approximately 3 times the number of matches than under the traditional Regional model. In addition, a new Ontario District Championship event will be held, where based on a common ranking points system adopted by all districts, the top 60 teams in the province will be invited to compete.

The District Championship will take place at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, the original venue of our inaugural regional in Canada back in 2002. The City of Mississauga has come on board as a sponsor for this event and we would like to thank them for their support. After the District Championship, the top ranked teams in the province will be selected to represent Ontario at the FIRST Championship Event. We have worked hard to add 3 new District events in Ontario as well as a District Championship in order to support this transition. This will guarantee two District event plays for each existing team as well as allow for growth in the Ontario region. We are working to confirm another GTA District event and will be releasing the details as soon as confirmed.

We are thrilled to announce and thank the following event locations for hosting a 2017 District event:
Nipissing University, North Bay
University of Windsor, Windsor
Ryerson University, Toronto
Durham College, Oshawa
University of Waterloo, Waterloo
University of Western Ontario, London
Georgian College, Barrie
McMaster University, Hamilton

The team registration costs under the District model will be significantly less than the traditional Regional model on a per-event basis. (e.g. In the District Model, teams attend two events, versus the Traditional Regional with one event). We are also working on a process that will allow Ontario teams to pay in Canadian dollars directly to FIRST Canada.